100 mph Ferndale chase ends with Tasers

FERNDALE -- A Detroit man fleeing police crashed into a tree on Eight Mile Road after driving at speeds of up to 100 mph and was stunned with Tasers when he then tried to flee on foot, police say.

The suspect, Andre W. Porter, 39, was charged Monday before Ferndale 43rd District Magistrate James Paterson with third-degree fleeing and eluding police, resisting and obstructing police, and driving on a suspended license. He is jailed on $100,000 cash bond.

Police said an officer stopped Porter in a Chevy Uplander minivan for speeding on West Eight Mile east of Woodward about 2 a.m. Monday.

“As the officer got out of his car, the suspect looked back at him from the van’s driver’s window and took off after the officer took a couple of steps,” said Ferndale Police Sgt. Patrick Jones.

Porter turned off the lights on the van and drove into a nearby Detroit neighborhood, police said.

Police chased the minivan into the residential neighborhood, where the suspect sped up to 80 mph and at one point ran down a street sign and drove along a sidewalk for a couple hundred feet, Jones said.

The suspect eventually exited the residential neighborhood, went north on Woodward and then headed west on Eight Mile.

The van swerved and hit a median before heading back into a Detroit neighborhood near Pembroke and Northlawn. The suspect then drove back onto Eight Mile Road and struck a tree on a median, police said.

Porter jumped out of his vehicle and officers yelled at him to stop as they chased him into an alley, Jones said.

“Two officers had to use their Tasers to stop him and he was arrested,” Jones said.

Porter has never obtained a driver’s license and he has several suspensions for driving without a license, police said.

Porter’s criminal history includes convictions for delivery and manufacture of drugs and carrying a concealed weapon, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. He is currently on probation for a drug offense.

He is scheduled for a pre-exam conference in Ferndale District Court at 1 p.m. Thursday.